[lethoso]

If you have the time for them, budgies make great little pets, and don't require a massive cage so long as you take em out a lot. I have a budgie in my house and he is a hyperactive little guy, he is also relatively quiet, except when he is talking to the lorikeets outside, or when everyone is eating dinner while he is inside his cage, he is at his quietest at dawn. Only trouble we have with him is he is highly territorial about his cage, so it makes bringing him out a little bit of a hassle, but working on training him out of that. He does shed a lot of dust though, but as far as maintanence is concerned it is relatively low compared to a cat or dog.

Out of curiosity epona, what sort of parrot do you own? I'm looking at getting a larger parrot soon (tossing up between an alexandrine, a quaker or a king parrot) and your parrot sounds like a lovely critter.